Category: Writing Essay
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If you are a writer, don’t read. That is the advice of leading writers, thinkers and eminent personalities, including Albert Einstein, Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy and William Woodard. Sounds like literary sacrilege, doesn’t it? More so, given that, as writers, we want to read everything we can lay our hands on. But, turns out, there…
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Past two months, I wrote and received acceptances for six pieces after making a conscious decision: I spent less time on social media. Even though engaging through my platforms have emerged to become an indispensable part of my writing life. Why and how? Read on to find out. As you may very well know, writing…
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JULY 05, 2025 Last year, something happened to my writing process. Inspiration went cold. Sentences didn’t flow. And the right words became elusive beasts in an ever-thinning herd. Some people would term this “writer’s block”, two words that brought to mind an unyielding presence, an insurmountable obstacle with solid edges and sharp corners. I didn’t…
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June 01, 2025 Hey friends! Welcome back! First up. Mysterious are the ways of the heart. My heart is full as both Glass/Fire and Where We Set Our Easel turned-in anniversaries–six months/4.25 Goodreads rating and two years/4.9 Goodreads rating respectively, but my collection of short stories is still looking for a publisher, even as the…
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GUEST BLOGPOST BY HARSHITA NANDA, AUTHOR OF Love Awaits, A Tale of Unbroken Promises MAY 18 2025 Most people have no idea what being a writer truly entails. Thus, I decided to pen down a few words and dispel some of the myths about being a writer and their writing process. Have you seen movies where…
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in spite of bending and breaking quite a few rules of literary fiction writing, “The Stackpole Legend” manages to be a hugely satisfying read “The Stackpole Legend” (Wendell Berry, The Threepenny Review) is not your conventional short story. Reading it can be revealing, especially to new and emerging writers. I say this because it busts so many myths early…
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May 06, 2025 Hey friends! Welcome back! Starting this month, this blog is set to become more regular and you’ll receive a monthly newsletter on the first week that is truly a newsletter–meaning it’ll have updates from the literary world we all ‘submit’ to (pardon the double meaning–we’re quite literally here!), news of open windows…
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Special Blogpost for National Poetry Month As you may remember, for my last blogpost I had shared my special Poetry Month trampset column What Do Fiction Writers Do All through Poetry Month? I hope you enjoyed the list, and especially, if you are a fiction writer, I hope you’ve been inspired by item #10 Check…
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![[Subscribers Only] What Do Fiction Writers Do All Through Poetry Month?](https://mandirapattnaik.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/cropped-author-pic-31-aug-1.jpg?w=512)
Besides, hoping, some day, someone, for sure, will think of uplifting poor fiction writers with something on the same lines. Imagine what a month dedicated to the appreciation of fiction can do. Fiction Month for everyone. Fiction books shoving poetry books to the back shelves in bookstores. Something like a Fiction Foundation on the lines…
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GUEST BLOGPOST BY CHITAL MEHTA, MFA in Creative Writing from Lindenwood University and Alum of VONA and Tin House MARCH 11 2025 Hey everyone! Before we dive into the third post of this year’s guest blog series, just wanted to have a quick chat. First off, happy belated International Women’s Day! Hope you did something…
